


To be human is to love

by AwashSquid



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 03:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14761325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwashSquid/pseuds/AwashSquid
Summary: Sailor Pluto is seen as a goddess, but is more human than many would realize.





	To be human is to love

**Author's Note:**

> This is short and VERY experimental, as I don't work with Pluto a lot and literally never write in second-person. So any feedback, positive or negative, is welcome!

Time passes differently for you at the Time Gate, one of the very small mercies bequeathed to you at your eternal vigil, so that you do not truly fathom the eons you stand vigilant–even the hardiest of soldiers and the strongest of minds can bend, given enough time. By your unique measure of its stretch, the longest you have stood uninterrupted was 16 days, hours and 32 seconds–each second spanning years, decades perhaps, Time shifting and flowing around you, its fixed point. 

Every time _she_ comes around, you pretend not to notice her hasty rise to power, the thirst in her eyes that flash with every ripple of her silvery hair, her every movement as subtle as moonlight creeping across a field. Some of her court members know of your presence through one means or another, myths and legends that persisted through centuries and outlived empires, and she hears how there is another Goddess who exists, one who has power to control what she cannot, even with her Crystal–time. You know all too well of this talk, and perhaps it is these insidious whispers that lead her to visit you at the Time Gate, the first person to find you without being struck down by your power in centuries. 

You wonder how a woman with so much could be jealous of anyone, but you do not wonder for long, as you recognize that you are distracted by her violet eyes, by the way that her words dance like moonbeams on the water. You find yourself quickly able to discern how others could be so easily entranced by this waif of a woman; you realize how easy it must have been for her to have planets bow at her feet, the entire galaxy ostensibly at her command, only one rogue, underdeveloped planet standing against her–and who was to say how long that rebellion would last, anyway? It never did go for _too_ long. Some things stay the same in every timeline: there are constants and variables, things that need to shift and things that must always be there. There must always be a Queen Serenity; there must always be her daughter, who must reclaim what has been destroyed; and a daughter after her, who promises to do better, but in reality starts the slow descent back into the cycle’s continuation. 

_Death and rebirth,_ as Saturn would say, perhaps the only other Senshi who could begin to understand the depths of your role in the cycle, perhaps the only other one with powers to rival or surpass your own. A shame you only got to speak to her in the briefest flickers of an instant, when she was awakened long enough to swing her glaive and restart the cycle. But your thoughts are cut short as the Queen pays you another visit, her pale skin glowing in the fog that surrounds you, and you feel your cheeks heat as she brushes the back of your hand with tentative fingers, a kiss lighter than the wind and even more fleeting. You try not to stare at her pink lips as she speaks about her kingdom and daughter, not to smile back at her proffered grins, not to kiss her when she leans in and cups your cheek in one cold hand. You fail at all of these things.

The cycle continues. You know what her fate will be, but you cannot stop yourself from looking forward to her visits, from reveling in the light caresses of her hands, white and smooth as marble. You know that this can only end in both of your ruins, but falling into Hell tasted as sweet as the sugar of her lips and you became drunk on the sensation, distracted from your duty by the simplest glance from her. You were two goddesses joined in a forbidden tryst, and you ignored what you knew must happen. You saved your tears for after she left for what you knew would be the last time, their hot trails washing away the cool touch of her cheek resting against yours.

You leave the Door, just once, when the Kingdom falls. She lays so still against a downed pillar that she almost appears to be a part of it, delicate folds of her dress carved from stone, a tranquil expression on her resting face. She has been dead for some hours now, but her skin feels no colder than it ever did, her beauty unmarred by death’s embrace. Your fingers yearn to touch the silken silver of her hair, but do not move from your side. You notice that one of her bracelets has broken and is lying next to her on the ground, the only indication that she had been harmed.

The bracelet comes back with you to your post, and you hold the smooth pearls in your hand as you lean against the Time Door, knowing that all you have of her are these cold, small stones, knowing that you were too weak to spurn her and save yourself this pain.

The whispers never stopped. They still refer to you as a goddess. But you know the truth, and it hums to you from the pearl bracelet clasped to the belt of keys at your waist. You were always far too human to be incapable of love.


End file.
